Safe
1x10 "Safe" is the tenth episode of the first season of Fringe. Synopsis When a suspect in a bank robbery is found stuck inside a vault wall, the team is called in to investigate. While Walter realizes the thieves are looking for something of his, a member of the team is ambushed. Plot In the Philadelphia Mutual Savings Bank at night, a team of five bank robbers kills a guard and disables the security cameras. Mitchell Loeb, an FBI agent who is also working with the Pattern Forces, is in charge. The robbers proceed to the main vault and set up several computers similar to the one Loeb used at the end of The Equation. They then stretch a large black tarp over the vault wall, and after running a charge through it, it begins to oscillate rapidly. Loeb then gives the command for two others to fire a large tow cable at the wall, but instead of striking the wall, the cable passes straight through it. Loeb and two others use the cable to pull themselves through the wall. Upon reaching the inside of the vault, the harpoon is seen attached magnetically to a safety deposit box. One of the men comments that they only have "57 seconds" left. They move to safety deposit box 610 and open it using a small explosive charge. They remove a heavy box, attach it to the harpoon cable and push it through the wall. As the men pull themselves back out, the last man struggles to loosen the tow cable. As he unhooks the harpoon and is pulled through the wall by his companions, it solidifies around him -- trapping him within the wall. With nothing left to do, Loeb, with no hesitation, shoots the trapped man in the head, leaving his body hanging out of the wall. Olivia Dunham, Walter Bishop and Peter Bishop arrive at the bank where the dead robber is stuck in the wall. Broyles tells The Team that two other bank vaults have been breached, one in Cleveland the other in Baltimore; now they finally know how. Each time the only thing that was taken was a single oversized safety deposit box. Suddenly, Olivia recognizes the man stuck in the wall as Raul Lugo. She remembers serving with him in the Marines and having dinner with him and his wife at his house. At the bank robbers' undisclosed hideout, one man attempts to open the stolen safety deposit box, and Loeb announces they have one more box to retrieve. As Loeb injects himself, part of a decontamination process, another team member, Ryan Eastwick, says they should have tried to save Lugo. Loeb tells the men that if anyone wants out, they can leave now. No one does. Meanwhile, at Wissenschaft Prison in Frankfurt, Germany, David Robert Jones is greeted by his lawyer, Mr. Salman Kohl. At a hardware store in Philadelphia, Walter and Peter shop for supplies. When Walter expresses amazement at the size and selection of the store, Peter reminds him that a lot of things have changed since he was locked away. Walter makes a wisecrack about Peter's failure to live up to his potential. Peter retorts that Walter, of all people, is in no position to criticize his life choices. Back at the prison, Jones learns that the job in Philadelphia was a success. He tells his attorney to wire another $100,000 to Mr. Loeb and to give him the location of the next item. Jones also hands the attorney a list of items he will need at their next meeting. Olivia heads to Edison, New Jersey to question Lugo's wife, Susan Lugo. It turns out that Susan and Raul had separated two years ago and Susan is unaware of what he's been up to. Olivia reminds Susan that they've met before; she came over once for dinner with her and Raul. Susan recalls the dinner, but doesn't remember Olivia being there at all. Instead, she says it was John Scott who was with them that night. In the bank vault, Peter helps Walter saw off Raul's hand. Walter believes that if he can examine the hand on a cellular level, he may get a clue as to how it was able to pass through a solid matter. Walter then explains that what we think of as solid matter is mostly empty space on the atomic level. To actually pass through matter, the robbers would need expensive, cutting-edge technology as well as a mastery of quantum physics. Peter asks Olivia if she has learned anything from Lugo's wife and Olivia reveals that she apparently never met Lugo; it was one of John Scott's memories in her mind. Walter expresses astonishment at this fact and states that he will look into it, but not at the moment. At Massive Dynamic headquarters in New York, Nina Sharp learns that the effort to retrieve John Scott's memories has hit a dead end. Scott's body is shown lying in the same oxygen chamber. Nina reminds the technician that they're in a race against "highly motivated individuals", so every possibility must be exhausted. At the Harvard Laboratory, Walter demonstrates how the robbers got through the wall. Walter explains that the tarp found on the vault door was used to conduct a high-frequency vibration on an atomic level, allowing the robbers to weaken the wall and pass through it. Using a beaker of uncooked rice sitting on top of a vibrating football game, Walter illustrates the process. He turns on the vibrating toy and places a toy action figure on top of the rice. The vibration allows the figure to sink into the rice. Walter has also concluded that use of the phasing technology can render the user radioactive, as indicated by the radiation signature of Lugo's severed hand. Olivia returns with news that all the safe deposit boxes were rented with cash over twenty years ago using fake names. However, a friend of Lugo's now tends bar in a Boston suburb, and Olivia and Peter head out to question him. At the bar, Olivia chats up the bartender Drew for information on Lugo, telling him she's positive she has seen him before -- at Raul and Susan's wedding. The bartender tells Olivia that Lugo went through a rough time after returning from the Gulf War, spending much of his time at a VA hospital due to post-traumatic stress. Olivia calls Broyles and asks him to find which VA hospital Lugo was staying at. At the hideout, the bank-robbing team plays chess while discussing a map of Loeb's they came across. It is a map of Germany with latitude and longitude lines drawn over it, and they are unsure what it means. Loeb then enters the room and informs them it's time to move out to their next target, a bank in Providence, Rhode Island. As they leave, Eastwick notices his hand is shaking irregularly. Peter shows Olivia a few card tricks at the bar. Then Olivia shows a trick of her own: she can remember the order of all the cards in the deck after one look. She tells Peter she has always had an uncanny memory for numbers. She rattles off license plate numbers of old friends, her old locker combination, and finally the numbers of the safety deposit boxes that were stolen: 233, 377, 610. Peter stops her suddenly, saying he "knows those numbers", because Walter recites them every night as he goes to sleep. They rush to Walter's hotel room, where Peter asks him to explain the significance of the numbers. Walter tells them that they are part of the Fibonacci sequence. Suddenly, Walter realizes that the safety deposit boxes are his. Walter knows there are more safety deposit boxes out there, but he cannot remember how many, where they are, or what it was he stored in them. At Massive Dynamic, the technician reports to Nina that they have managed to access the last image in John Scott's optic nerve -- an image of Olivia. She tells her that the image is linked to a second set of brainwave echoes, and that somehow they must have shared consciousness (Pilot). Nina realizes that the very memories Massive Dynamic are trying to recover may now be in Olivia's mind. At a VA hospital in Washington, D.C., Olivia asks Dr. Bruce Miller if he remembers Lugo and who he may have spent time with. The doctor says he cannot waste his time going through his files unless Olivia wants to come back with a subpoena. As she is about to leave, one of the orderlies, Ed Smith, tells her he remembers Lugo as part of a group of three other men they called "The Chess Club". He gives Olivia the names. At the FBI, Charlie and Olivia track down Lugo's three other associates. One of them just bought a ticket to Providence, RI and the plane landed 45 minutes ago. Peter tricks Walter into remembering the exact bank he used in that city, and Olivia races to intercept them. In Providence, the FBI has shut down the streets surrounding the bank, and the bank manager takes Olivia and Charlie to the vault -- where they discover the deposit box has already been stolen. Olivia realizes the robbers must have breached the vault through the floor using the sewer system and they may still be there. The FBI agents rush outside to find the robbers getting in their van. Olivia shoots Eastwick in the leg before he reaches the van, foiling his escape. Back at the hideout, Loeb shows the remaining team what they're stealing: parts of a highly advanced device that look like surveying instruments. Now that they have retrieved the last piece. Loeb makes a phone call, saying "He's coming tonight". In the German prison, Jones takes the items he requested from his attorney: suntan lotion, a wad of US currency, eye drops, and two vials of pills, Dramamine. He then asks the attorney to return at 6:30AM when he will sign the paperwork for his appeal. Jones has one last request of his attorney: he slides a drawing of Olivia Dunham across the table. Back at the FBI office in Boston, Eastwick is in custody. Olivia tries to break him in the interrogation room, but repeats only his name, rank, and serial number. Peter notices Eastwick's hand is shaking, and asks Olivia to step out of the room. Peter explains to Eastwick that he has radiation poisoning and if left untreated, he will die. If he wants help, he'll have to tell Peter who hired him and what he was stealing. Eastwick finally cooperates, but admits he never knew who he was working for or what they stole. However, he remembers overhearing a conversation about a field in Westford, Massachusetts. While studying a map of Westford for fields, Olivia suddenly realizes where Loeb and his people are going -- Little Hill Field, mentioned in In Which We Meet Mr. Jones only as "Little Hill." After making the connection between David Jones and Little Hill, the FBI springs into action. In the Harvard lab, Walter begins to remember what he was trying to hide in the safe deposit boxes. He tells Peter that when he was a little boy he contracted a very rare disease similar to Hepia, a form of bird flu. Walter became consumed in trying to find a cure. In his research, he discovered a Swiss physician named Dr. Alfred Gross, the only man to ever successfully cure a case of Hepia. Unfortunately, he had died in 1936. Walter then designed a device to reach back into time, crossing the time-space continuum, that would bring Dr. Gross back to save Peter. Walter believes this is the device that was hidden in his safety deposit boxes. Peter asks if he actually used the device, if he really went back in time. Walter says he never used it, as Peter miraculously started to recover on his own before it could be tested. However, Walter goes on to say that, in theory, the science behind the device was real -- and in theory it could retrieve anyone from anywhere As Olivia races to Little Hill, Loeb and his team have already arrived and begin setting up the stolen devices, triangulating a specific coordinate. Meanwhile in Germany, Jones snaps Mr. Kohl's neck and puts on his suit. As Olivia nears the site, three black SUV's suddenly ambush her and run her off the road. She jumps out of her car and tries to escape, but before she can her pursuers shoot her with a tranquilizer and she is captured. Back at Little Hill, Loeb's team finishes assembling a ring-shaped device on the ground. They step back as it begins to glow, emitting a column of light that reaches into the sky. In Germany, Jones takes the eye drops, applies the sun block, and stands in the corner of his cell. As a bright flash of light envelops him, he suddenly materializes in the column of light inside the ring at Little Hill. Broyles calls Nina Sharp and informs her that Olivia has been abducted. Broyles demands to know if Massive Dynamic is responsible, but Nina shows genuine concern for Olivia's safety and offers her full support in finding her. Loeb welcomes Jones and informs him that they have Olivia. Jones smiles. "Then let's not keep her waiting." References Cambridge; Edison; Fairmont Savings Bank; Federal Building; Fibonacci number; Harvard Laboratory; Little Hill Field; Philadelphia; Philadelphia Mutual Savings Bank; Providence; Teleportation device; Washington D.C.; Westford; Wissenschaft Prison Notable Quotes (After Peter questions her on being introduced as her "brother" in the bar scene.) Olivia: Yeah... it uh, kinda works better that way. Peter: Does it now? Walter: I was in Baltimore. I remember a woman with particularly large breasts. Walter: No, Peter’s right. Your pupils are dilated. It’s a symptom of high stress. Unless you’re using hallucinogens. Are you tripping, Agent Dunham? Walter: Think back 20 years. Imagine yourself then imagining yourself now, 20 years into the future. In your wildest imagination, could you ever think you’d be here? Peter: You violated the laws of nature, Mr. Eastwick, and Mother Nature is a bitch. Walter: When she's finished chewing her cud, remember to brush her teeth. Astrid: I am not brushing a cow's teeth, Walter. You know I have real work to do, right? Clerk: Can I help you guys find something? Walter: Oh, yes. We're looking for an electric saw. Preferably variable speed with an easily replaceable blade system. Clerk: What are you cutting, wood? Walter: Human tissue. Flesh and bone. It's more sinuous than you may expect. Peter: It's really not that dire. Walter: Oh, actually, potentially it's far worse. Clerk: Um, I think that the saw you're looking for is around the corner, next to the routers. Walter: Thank you. Peter: No need to call the police. Notes *The symbol was seen on "The Dreamscape" on the side of a van, as Olivia Dunham and Charlie Francis chase George Morales. * The Fibonacci numbers were first recited, in part, by Walter Bishop in "The Same Old Story". * The coordinates used to retrieve David Robert Jones from prison were poorly read, common sense translates the coordinates to 49.1112295N 8.9160920E - about 60 miles South of Frankfurt, Germany - and a possible location for the fictional Wissenschaft Prison. *You can see The Observer on the security monitor right before it gets shut down in the very beginning on the episode. Goofs * When Walter Bishop was explaining to Peter Bishop how when he was little, Walter was forced to pull a scientist from the past to save his life, he referred to the "time-space continuum". The correct scientific usage of the term is the "spacetime continuum". * At Little Hill Field, Mitchell Loeb's team carefully sets the direction and elevation of a viewing device. When using the device a few moments later, one of them casually adjusts it to his needs. * When Olivia returns to the bank where Walter and Peter amputated Raul Lugo's arm, her badge was upside down. Music *"Sister Lost Soul" by Alejandro Escovedo *"Sequestered In Memphis" by The Hold Steady Trivia *When Olivia Dunham was at the bar with Peter Bishop, she introduced Peter as "her brother, Rick" to the barman. Later on the same episode, when Olivia was talking to the Providence Bank's director, she called him by the name "Mr. Grimes". This is a reference to the protagonist of The Walking Dead, Sheriff Deputy Rick Grimes. Cypher Category:Season One Episodes